Snow Angel

My ANGEL SNOWMAN quilt is finished…….AND….the label.  I originally named this the SNOWFLAKE Angel – but when I made the label, apparently I changed my mind. LOL.  This one has been on my UFO list for quite some time and I am happy to have it completed.  I wished that I had NOT put all of those pearls and BEADS on the quilt BEFORE I tried to quilt it…..but it is too late now…..chalk it up to experience.

I am also continuing to work on Judy Laquidara’s ROLLING ALONG QUILT that she is sharing with us! 

Rolling Along

The FREE MOTION QUILTING CHALLENGE FOR FEB is to make feathers.  My first attempt at FEATHERS was unremarkable……my feathers are pointy and do not look like feathers – so I am going to work on that this week!  What I LERNED was that it is good to read the instructions BEFORE you try to do something.  SIGH.  SO – I am not even going to call these feathers….these are pointed leaves!!!

Feathers - the Feb FMQ Challenge

Look at what these feathers are supposed to look like!  I need to do some work on this…..LOL.  I wonder what my feather example will look like NEXT WEEK!

Also on my design floor this week is the COLOR CHALLENGE for Feb. 2012.  Here is the inspiration photo.  I will be searching my stash for fabrics this week!

Feb. Color Challenge 2012

This will be a busy week – given the current state of my FEATHER QUILTING SKILLS!  LOL.

To see what other quilters are doing this week – check out Judy Laquidara’s Blog.

http://www.patchworktimes.com/2012/02/06/design-wall-monday-february-6-2012/

You might remember that,  in January,  ONE OF OUR MEMBERS (still nameless because I can keep a secret) caught her pants on the knob of a dresser at Susan’s house and tore a hole in her pants…….in case you forgot…….here is the picture that I so shamelessly took.

The HOLE IN Meeting ONE

After today, I am thinking that creating HOLES may be a common theme for this group – because this SAME PERSON (still to remain nameless)  that put a hole in her pants ran over (as in an automobile) Catherine’s bag that was sitting in the driveway…..and you guessed it….the car tore a hole in the bag!  No there was NOT a sewing machine inside.

The HOLE in Catherine's bag

Thankfully, this bag and the little baggie on the counter – shown below…….were the only things damaged!  We sure got a lot of giggles out of this……we all wonder what this mystery member has in store for us NEXT MONTH!

What is left of Catherine's little baggie!

OK –   so on with the rest of our BEE FUN!  First the roll call – Catherine and Cheryl.

Susan and her VERY COOL BOX that she bought for $1.00!!!!!

Me - sao - the photographer and KEEPER OF SECRETS!

There were some pretty precious FURRY PEEPS at our BEE too!

Spike LOVES quilty things!

Sassy - the QUEEN of the sewing castle!

Today Susan (one of the now FAMOUS SWIRLY GIRLS)  was not able to work on her applique project because her sewing machine needed some extra attention; however she did show us what she is going to do with her DON’T LOOK NOW PILLOW project.  Her applique tree started out to be a pillow but will now become a wall quilt after she discovered that the WONDERFUL little blocks that she was making made an FABULOUS outside border for the applique tree!

Susan's Applique Bee Project

So, given that she could NOT applique her tree and leaves down today, Susan worked on some VERY BEAUTIFUL little bags and she shared a few that she had already made ………THANK YOU SUSAN FOR MY BAG!

This one is mine…..I love my bag, Susan!

Catherine made some LOVELY VALENTINES for The Swirly Girls to take on their cruise…next week and they survived the drive by (more accurately the drive over)  incident.  She also gave each of us some BUBBLE GUM CRAYONS………which Susan said weren’t that tasty!  LOL  On a more positive note, Cheryl thought that the yellow crayons were delicious.  I have not tasted mine – but it is the THOUGHT THAT COUNTS.  Thank you Catherine!!!

Catherine and the VERY CREATIVE VALENTINES!

Catherine also worked on her circles for her little MONSTER/ TURNED SCOTTY QUILT.  We were drooling over her beautiful red and black fabric selections!

Catherine's Circles - ready to turn using the Eleanor Burns Method

Cheryl worked on her flowers  (the colors are so yummy) when she wasn’t busy entertaining us in other ways…..she is definitely a valuable and memorable member of the APPLIQUE BEE group.

Cheryl's Flowers

The orange fabric was in Cheryl’s stash and it adds a fabulous splash of color!  It is always so much fun to find these little surprises in our stash!!

I worked on my Rainbow Lollipops quilt – I am making MILLIONS of little flowers….and here are some of them that I have made so far!

Some of sao's flowers

We are all making something from DON’T LOOK NOW patterns and it will be fun to see our projects develop over time!

Not only did we work on our projects but we also LAUGHED A LOT and for lunch we ate white chicken chili that Susan made.  It was so good!  Look at the steam rising – can you almost smell it?

Susan's White Chicken Chili

Here is my lunch….and I got to eat using a hand embroidered tea-towel that Susan’s Grandma made.  I love it.  I wonder if someday my grandangels will love the things that I have made!

Finally – I just have to share photos from Susan’s sewing room…..it is just the most perfect sewing room ever!

We enter the SEWING CASTLE through double doors at the top of the stairs

Inside we see Susan's purse project - the strips all ready to be sewn together

Love the Fabric choices

Colorful Color Coded Stash

On both sides of the double doors are the TO DIE FOR SHELVES DISPLAYING SUSAN’S STASH!

One of the things that I LOVE the most about this sewing room are the RAGGEDY ANNS happily watching over the sewing projects!!!

Isn't this one from Kelly Ann precious?

I adore the little one without clothes!

And Andy is here too!

I think  that you could stand in this room and look for hours and continue to see new things!  I just noticed that I made the little straw hat pin cushion on this shelf!!  :)

We had  a wonderful afternoon spent with friends and furry peeps as well.  I had a great time and I have just ONE MORE THING TO SAY……I LOVE LOVE LOVE this cat!  

I love this cat!

The first month of the ColorChallenge has been lots of fun.  Here are the Vicki Welsh colors!  This photo is of 1882 tiles in a ship  that she saw in a museum in London.

Vicki Welsh - Jan. 2012 Color Challenge

Here is my quilt using those colors!

The Spangle Tree

Label for THE SPANGLE TREE

I can’t wait to start on the February colors!

SO…..MAYBE I will do the January 16th projects this week…..LOL.

What is FOR SURE on my DESIGN WALL is Judy Laquidara’s January QOV (Quilt of Valor) Quilt Along Quilt.  We are on Step Two and I am loving it.

First we made tiny little FLYING GEESE BLOCKS.  Mine are black and white instead of blue and white (why – because when I started cutting I thought the fabric was navy blue dotty – but after my brain got in gear, I realized they were black dotty…….)

72 Tiny Flying Geese Blocks

Then we made star blocks – 18 very colorful ones!  I think the little black dotty flying geese blocks make great star points!

Step 2 Star Blocks

Here are my 18 COLORFUL Star Blocks – orange, red, blue, yellow, teal, and purple!  I am stepping out here with the use of bright colors…………the NEW ME!

18 Colorful Star Blocks

AND I just finished 36 HST blocks….

Rolling Along Blocks

I am going to learn to do FREE MOTION QUILTING THIS YEAR…and this next quilt, I will be machine quilting myself….2012 SCRAPPY Summer Jewels.  Here is the first block.  This is a pattern from Augusta Cole’s CUTTING BEE and I love the pattern (I have actually made TWO Summer Jewels Quilts already!)  The thing is that I LOVE SCRAPPY QUILTS…..but my SCRAPPY has always been CONTROLLED…..ie; there has been a color theme and lots of fabric the same.  This is my FIRST EVER TOTALLY SCRAPPY ANYTHING GOES QUILT and I am having some “unrestful” feelings about it.  I am going to forge ahead though because ALL OF AUGUSTA’S SCRAPPY QUILTS ARE WONDERFUL and this one just might look better as more blocks are added.  (I HOPE SO BECAUSE I AM NOT IN LOVE WITH THIS BLOCK!)  I think I like it better when the LIGHT BLOCKS are actually lighter…..maybe even white!

2012 Scrappy Summer Jewels

Check out Judy Laquidara’s blog to see what other quilters are doing this week!

http://www.patchworktimes.com/2012/01/30/design-wall-monday-january-30-2012/

Each of us brought 10 light fabrics and 10 dark fabrics cut into 4 1/2″ and 2 1/2″ strips ….then we put them all out on a table and walked along the sides of the table to select fabrics that we wanted.  We all left with the same amount of fabric that we brought…..and we ended up with VARIETY – which Augusta says is “THE SPICE OF LIFE.”

Our lunch this year was my FAVORITE of all of our lunches.  We had a delicious potato soup with salad, bread, and cake for dessert.  YUM.  Thanks to Augusta’s husband, Steve, for cooking for us.

Here are my pictures for this year – lots of beautiful quilts – all made with these strips – and there are several SHOW AND TELL QUILTS too.  

THE BONUS THIS YEAR is a little dance by Augusta herself….enjoy!!!!

http://youtu.be/GV6_Jm4bg5Q

OK – so here is what I DID do.

FIRST… I put together the top for my grandangel, Jannae’s, art quilt.  

She made these drawings on cloth with crayon when she was 5 and 6 years old.

Second – I knitted a hat for my Grandangel, Leanna.

Leanna's knitted hat

I think I have redeemed myself after making her an ugly scraf that my brother, Dan, says looks like she was wearing intestines around her neck.  I still do not know what to do with it………I guess it would make a good WHITE ELEPHANT gift if that ever comes up!

Leanna and the UGLY Knitted Scarf

Third – I helped Grandangel Leanna make a pieced skirt for her sister’s American Girl Doll.  She made it with 2 1/2″ fabric strips from my 30′s fabrics – I have a special basket for this fabric collection

Grandangel Leanna and the SKIRT

Fourth – I finished my 2012 January Color Challenge – combined with my January Free Motion Quilting Challenge – it is my first Alzheimer’s Art Quilt to be donated this year.

The colors were given by Vicki Welsh – the picture is of tiles of an 1882 Ship that she saw in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  I used yo yo’s that I purchased at an “estate” fabric sale.  I just couldn’t let this deceased quilter’s pickle jar of yo yo’s that she worked so hard on NOT get used for something special!

I also quilted it using HEART LEAVES – the January 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge.

The Spangle Tree

I named the quilt the THE SPANGLE TREE in memory of my friend Margarita.  She was a Spanish Professor at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, CA  where I taught for 20 years.  We used to walk together in the early mornings before our classes started.  I loved her!

Margarita was very spiritual and shared the story of how “GOD SPOKE TO HER ONE NIGHT AND CALLED HER HIS SPANGLE.”  She was very distressed because she dreamed and prayed in SPANISH and God had spoken to her in ENGLISH.  So she had to go look up SPANGLE in the dictionary.  She said it meant sweet, and special – like a sparkling  star.  (I looked up the meaning on WIKIPEDIA and evidently it was also a candy made in the 1950′s as well….now discontinued.)

Here is the BACK of The Spangle Tree…..I used a BIRD HOUSE label (you have to have birdhouses to go with a Spangle Tree) that I got on the WHITE ELEPHANT TABLE at my Colonial Piecemaker’s Quilt Guild meeting.  I love using unloved and unwanted things for a new purpose.

The Back of THE SPANGLE TREE

Fourth – I made my 11 x 14 block for the Richmond Modern Quilt Guild Round Robin that will begin in February.  We had to use a word that represented our dreams or aspirations for 2012.  I chose SPANGLES (I guess my friend, God’s Spangle, Margarita, is on my mind a lot lately, and I had a DREAM about this block – SERIOUSLY, I planned it in my dream!)   So, in 2012, I hope to be sweet, special, different, sparkly like a star, colorful, and FUN!….so SPANGLES is my word for 2012.  The dots in the fabric represent the CANDY NERDS which I tasted for the FIRST TIME this week.  Grandangel, Sarah, shared some with me.  The ONLY candy that I really eat much is chocolate….so this was a taste adventure.

Spangles

Fifth – I put together my 2011 Summer Mystery Quilt!

Summer Mystery 2011

So what will I do this week?  WHAT I HAD ON MY DESIGN FLOOR LAST WEEK!  LOL.

Go to Judy Laquidara’s Blog at Patchwork Times.Com to see what quilters around the country are working on!

 http://www.patchworktimes.com/2012/01/23/design-wall-monday-january-23-2012/

And then I got weary (in my sleep) of embroidering around little dots, so I designed my next ROUND ROBIN BLOCK.  We need to turn in an 11 x 14 block in February……with a word on it that stands for our dream, aspirations, goal or desires for 2012.  STAY TUNED….it is my project for today.  :)  Inspired by Julia, I am going to do some WONKY thread play on my letters…….

And that DREAM made me remember that I did not post our RMQG Show and Tell for the meeting last Friday.   SO, better late than never!!!

My Show and Tell is at the quilt top stage….it was in my car and it was raining – so it didn’t make it inside to the meeting.  Jannae, my grandangel, made  crayon drawings on cloth when she was 5 and 6 years old….(she turned 8 yesterday!)  It took a long time for me to figure it out because I didn’t want to mess it up and it was challenging because her blocks were all different sizes.  The third challenge was that she chose the fabric.  BUT FINALLY,  I was able to put her drawings together into a quilt…….the tooth fairy is my favorite block!

….but I think she did a good job on her dog, Roxy!

Jannae's Art Quilt by sao

I guess I should include a picture of the little artist!  :)  Hey there are perks to having your own blog!  LOL

Grandangel Jannae sewing a bean bag

I am now piecing the BACK for my  Orca Bay – Bonnie Hunter’s Mystery Quilt.  I finished piecing the top this week!  I call this one ORCA BAY 1.  (I am making my FAVORITE style back for the quilt….12 1/2″ squares…..I am using gold, white, red, and blue blocks.  It takes a bit of time to piece the back but I am discovering that these are the quilts that I LOVE – the plain back ones just don’t grab my heart in the same way. )

Orca Bay 1

Here is Orca Bay 2 (I have shown this before but I want you to tell me which one you like the best!)  One I will keep and the other I will donate or give away.  Three of my 17 grandangels are still quiltless…..can you believe it?

Orca Bay 2

This week I will be sewing 1 1/2″ strips together to make the EASY STRATA STAR table topper quilt.  If you want the pattern, I put a link for the website to order the pattern….the picture below is from that link.  Here is the Bayside Quilting Store’s Easy Strata Star picture.

Easy Strata Star

https://www.baysidequilting.com/store/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=1284

Here are my strips that need to be sewn together for the Strata Star.  I keep rearranging the order!!!!  I think this is the order that I will use.

Strata Star Fabric

If you want to see what quilters around the country have on their design walls – here is Judy Laquidara’s link (she has a new book out on borders and is taking pre-orders for autographed copies now!)

http://www.patchworktimes.com/2012/01/16/design-wall-monday-january-16-2012/

The top of my first ORCA BAY II Quilt is finished…..and I have already delivered it to my long arm quilter….I can’t wait to see it finished!

Orca Bay II is with the long arm quilter

The part that is really fun about BOTH of these Orca Bay Quilts is that I did not buy any new fabric for this – it is all fabric that I had in my stash….that makes me feel really good.

I am also working on the 2012 COLOR CHALLENGE – a Vicki Welsh and Judy Laquidara project.  The photo that inspired the colors is from a photograph taken at the  Victoria and Albert Museum in London – an 1882 Ship Tile…  Here are my fabrics.  I am making an Alzheimer’s Art Initiative Quilt to donate……

CHOICE 1 fabrics…..

Fabrics for the 2012 Color Challenge in January

Choice 2 Fabrics

Choice 2 Color Challenge 2012 January

I don’t know which fabrics that I will choose – but it will be a choice that I will make this week.  ONE MORE THING…..I have decided that all of my COLOR CHALLENGE PROJECTS must come from fabrics in my stash.  I really want to use what I already have!

And the newest and latest thing on my  DESIGN FLOOR this week is my NEW applique quilt from DON’T LOOK NOW…..RAINBOW LOLLIPOPS…  I think this is a very cute quilt; however I will not include the butterflies (because I have an inherent dislike for bugs with wings) and instead I will include cats!  I love cats!  I did buy the white background  fabric and one piece of green fabric for this quilt – because I needed lots for GRASS and green is my least favorite color – so I didn’t have a lot in my stash to choose from.

So far I have drawn FIVE PAGES of flowers and lollipops on the fusible web!  I used the lead from 4 pencils and all of the ink from 2 ink pens…..lol….that is a lot of drawing…..about 4 hours worth to be exact!  I am a member of an Applique Bee – a subset group from my Richmond Modern Quilt Guild  - and we are all making DON’T LOOK NOW applique patterns.  It is more fun to do this with friends…… because it is so tedious that if one were alone – one might do ANYTHING ELSE instead……LOL.

Rainbow Lollipops

If you would like to see what is on the DESIGN WALL of quilters across the country go to Judy Laquidara’s Blog….

 http://www.patchworktimes.com/2012/01/09/design-wall-monday-january-9-2012/

Happy Sewing Everyone!

Here is my  CHEDDAR BOW TIE progress….

 Mine is being made with my Mother and Daddy’s shirts.  I just realized that I came back from Kansas City in December without one of Daddy’s shirts!  Talk about taking the shirt off someone’s back!  But hey, he has beautiful shirts and almost EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM IS A PLAID!

If you want to see what other quilters are doing with the BOW TIE CHALLENGE go to Bonnie Hunter’s LINKY THING.  AND…ta da……if you can GUESS how many bow tie blocks that Bonnie has made,  you will win a prize!

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/01/cheddar-bow-tie-link-up-and-prize-give.html

HAPPY SEWING!